Utica Zoo will benefit from the mayor's charity ball

Proceeds for Mayor David Roefaro’s 2010 Charity Ball will go to benefit the Utica Zoo, his wife, Cindy, announced Tuesday at a news conference at the zoo.

The ball will be held Jan. 9 at Radisson Hotel-Utica Centre – though the time, place and ticket availability will all be announced later, Roefaro said.

DAN MINER

Proceeds for Mayor David Roefaro’s 2010 Charity Ball will go to the Utica Zoo, his wife announced Tuesday at a news conference at the zoo.

The ball will be Jan. 9 at the Radisson Hotel-Utica Centre, Cynthia Roefaro said. Tickets, which are available through the zoo, will be $50, and the event will include entertainment, food and drinks.

Zoo Executive Director Beth Irons said the money would help close the zoo’s funding gap as well as helping upgrade exhibits and fund some painting and landscaping.

“It’s wonderful to be recognized as an asset to the quality of life here,” she said. “It’s significant on a number of different levels.”

Irons said she walked through the zoo with Cynthia Roefaro and identified several sections that could be “prettied up.”

The first ball, held in 2008, was conducted at the Utica Public Library and raised more than $50,000 for the library’s Children’s Room. Last year, more than $67,000 was raised from the ball, which benefitted the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mohawk Valley.

The event is planned through a committee chaired by Cynthia Roefaro.

“We can never lose our zoo,” she said. “It’s great for our children to be educated here.”

Mayor Roefaro said the event’s attendees include “real working class people” and “real working class families.”

“In just two years, we’ve raised over $115,000 for the mayor’s ball,” he said. “It just goes to prove that even in the hardest economic times, Upstate New Yorkers are among the state’s most generous.”